One of the Los Angeles Rams’ best assets is their depth. In addition to being strong at the top of the depth chart, the Rams can go deep into their roster and still find productive players. We’ve seen it demonstrated several times this season, whether it was Austin Blythe filling in for John Sullivan and Rodger Saffold on occasion, or rookie John Johnson overtaking Maurice Alexander and Cody Davis for the starting safety job.

On Sunday against the Vikings, the Rams didn’t do a great job of showcasing how many playmakers they have, particularly on offense. Before their final drive, only five players were targeted by Jared Goff, and only one player received a carry out of the backfield.

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There’s nothing wrong with leaning on your starters, but with guys like Lance Dunbar, Tavon Austin and Pharoh Cooper on the team, it was a bit surprising to see how few offensive players the Rams utilized.

As you can see by the snap counts, the list is very short, which is unusual for the Rams. And for the most part, the players at the bottom were only in the game when it got out of hand. Essentially, the Rams used one personnel set for most of the game: three wide receivers, one tight end and one running back – all with the same players on the field.

On defense, the Rams went much deeper. Although Tanzel Smart was essentially phased out of the rotation up front (seven snaps), Wade Phillips did a good job of getting a number of guys on the field – whether he wanted to or not.

Dominique Hatfield and Blake Countess were forced into much larger roles due to Kayvon Webster and Nickell Robey-Coleman’s injuries, and they definitely struggled. The injuries forced Los Angeles to play more in their base defense with Connor Barwin and Robert Quinn seeing the field plenty.

As McVay said, the game dictated how the Rams operated on Sunday. They only ran 56 plays on offense, which prevented them from getting into any sort of a flow. That’ll hopefully change next week against the Saints, though that’s no guarantee, either.

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